Don't let up

This week, swastikas appeared painted in various locations in the town of Gonnet, adjacent to La Plata. Community authorities, including the La Plata Municipality, expressed their condemnation and pledged to investigate the matter. Of course, Argentina is a pluralistic country (in addition to the fact that it is comprised almost entirely of immigrants or descendants of European immigrants), and these kinds of displays, which hark back to times of racial hatred, are unacceptable.

As we have often mentioned, the Baal Shem Tov used to say that from everything one hears and sees, one should learn a lesson in the service of God. Furthermore, the Alter Rebbe, founder of the Chabad Lubavitch Movement, taught that we must live in accordance with the times, which means observing and drawing from them the lessons of life. parashah This week's lesson is for everyday life. In this spirit, the question each of us should ask ourselves is: what can we learn from these graffiti pieces and what is their connection to this week's section?

The parashah This week's reading is called Re'eh, notice. It covers many important topics, such as the laws of Kashrut, idolatry, donations of the produce of the land, the work cycle on the land, etc. However, it begins with a verse that, in addition to giving the reading its name, parashah, This defines a fundamental concept in Jewish thought. The verse says (Deuteronomy 11:26): “See, I am bringing blessing and curse upon you today.” Now, how can God be saying that He Himself sends curses upon man? God is absolute good; “no evil comes from His mouth,” says the prophet.

To understand this, we must understand that there is a level of revealed good and a hidden level of good, and that the hidden good is much higher than the revealed good (see ""Hidden blessings"(For more details). Revealed good is expressed in our reality as something good, while hidden good is expressed as evil. The world is not refined enough to be a vessel for this hidden good and to reveal it.

This helps us understand one idea about recent antisemitic demonstrations: the world is constantly reminding us that we have an identity, and that we must never forget to cultivate it. Throughout human history, whenever the Jewish people, so to speak, "weakened" their connection with God, the peoples of the earth made it their mission to remind us who we are and what we should be doing. Of course, it would have been better if they had found another way to do so, and even better still if we hadn't "weakened" our connection, but in practice, that's exactly what happened.

In other words, it is up to us to strengthen our union with God through Torah and Mitzvot, so that we may have a strong Jewish identity in accordance with our eternal laws and traditions, so that we do not need the peoples of the earth to remind us of it...